Exploring the coupling coordination relationship and influencing factors between regional integration and urban land utilization green efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta, China

In China’s urban agglomerations, improving the coupling coordination relationship between regional integration and urban land utilization green efficiency is a pressing issue for attaining high-quality economic growth. This study focuses on the Yangtze River Delta region, which uses a modified gravity framework to measure the regional integration degree of various cities and the Slack-Based Measure model to assess the urban land utilization green efficiency. Using coupling coordination models and spatial econometric models, we experimentally examined the coupling coordination connection and impact factors between urban land utilization green efficiency, and regional integration. During the research period, the findings reveal that: (1) Within the scope of the study area, there was a synchronous upward trend observed in both regional integration and urban land utilization green efficiency. (2) Over time, there was a noticeable increase tendency in the coupling coordination link between the two aspects, exhibiting a spatial distribution where the east has higher levels and the west has lower levels. (3) Factors including economic size, modernization of the industrial structure, external openness, urban road area, and government intervention significantly enhanced the coupling coordination between the two research aspects, while excessive urban road area was identified as an inhibiting factor. These conclusions provide theoretical insights for achieving superior economic growth and building an ecological civilization in terms of urban agglomerations.